Enemy
by Ashes That Fall From Sky
Summary: Amberpaw is sure that now that she's an apprentice, life will be smooth. But she makes an enemy that shouldn't have been made. The apprentice can't seem to let go of the grudge she holds against Bearpaw, even when a terrible sickness strikes the woods she calls home.
1. Prologue

**PROLOGUE**

A lone black tom stood with his back to the mountains, his different-colored eyes staring stoically up at the dark sky. His mouth was still filled with blood, but he ignored the pain. _She will return._

Someday, they or their descendants would come back to the mountain. He was sure of it. And then revenge would be his.

Turning, he made his way back to the cave where he lived. Several pairs of glowing eyes stared back at him. Then a skinny, crooked old tom stepped forward, gazing at him through sightless blue eyes.

"The time has come. She is coming."

"When?" the tom said coolly.

He blinked long and slow, as though it was flowing into him. Then he gave a nod. "On the night of the full moon, I know not which. She comes with the sweetness of the flower and the glint of amber. She is your downfall."

"Nonsense!" The black tom swatted angrily at the cat. "She is my revenge. This is what I have been waiting for."

An eerie chanting began from the cats in the cave. It echoed down the mountainside, but failed to reach the peaceful grass and woods beyond. Up above, the stars twinkled silently, helpless spectators to the evil brewing.


	2. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER ONE**

Amberpaw crouched in the tall grass, her muscles tense under her tortoiseshell coat. She crept an inch closer, careful to keep within the shadow of the leafy bush. The reddish-brown she-cat continued her browsing for catmint, unaware of the danger.

In one fluid motion, Amberpaw rushed forward and slammed into the she-cat. Strong-smelling leaves went flying everywhere, as did patches of tortoiseshell and red fur as the two she-cats tussled. "Amberpaw! You nearly gave me a heart attack. I thought you were rogue or something!"

Amberpaw laughed and nudged her sister. "Come on, Fernpaw. It was hilarious. I can't believe you didn't see me."

Fernpaw pretended to be cross, but her sage green eyes twinkled merrily. "Help me pick this catmint up. Now that it's finally newleaf, Shineheart and I are stocking up on as many herbs as we can."

"Okay," Amberpaw said, picking up a few leaves in her mouth. The sharp minty taste flooded her mouth, stilling her tongue for once, and she was quiet as they headed back to LeafClan's camp.

Shineheart stood outside, scolding Bearpaw and Thistlepaw for putting red ants in Honeypaw's nest. The golden tabby apprentice stood nearby, a clump of chewed leaves on her rump where she'd been bitten, glowering at her two brothers.

"Can't say she didn't deserve it," Amberpaw muttered under her breath. She had no use for tom-obsessed fastidious she-cats like Honeypaw.

The two brothers trotted towards them, eyes still sparkling mischievously. "Hey Amberpaw," Bearpaw called. "I didn't know you wanted to be a medicine cat too!"

Amberpaw had to settle for flicking her tail across his shoulder since her mouth was full. Once they were inside the medicine cat's den, she spat the catmint out. "Blech! How do you medicine cat's get used to it?"

Shineheart popped in, her golden-white pelt gleaming in the early afternoon sun. "Those two are the biggest troublemakers I've ever seen. Oh good, Fernpaw you're back. We need to throw out our old winter stores and rearrange them."

"And that's my signal. I'm out of here. Catch you later." Amberpaw nuzzled Fernpaw's cheek and made her way back out into the camp.

"Amberpaw!" Her mother was trotting towards her. Swiftbreeze was still young and pretty as ever; her golden brown coat gleamed, and her jolly amber eyes, the same shade as Amberpaw's, could still turn a tom's heart over so fast he'd think it stopped.

"Hi," she said. "What's up?"

"Brackenfall wants you. He's waiting by the apprentice's den. You have fight-training."

Amberpaw's eyes gleamed; fighting was something she did well. "Okay, thanks!" She headed towards the apprentice's den, a large sandy den that used to be a badger set. Brackenfall was standing outside, his bracken-colored pelt turned to a flaming orange in the sun.

"Ready?" he said, a note of teasing in his voice. "Or would you rather spend the rest of the day leaf-gathering?"

"Oh please," Amberpaw said, laughing and butting his shoulder. They headed out of the camp, up the fallen log that provided a good pathway out of the gully, and out into LeafClan's lovely spring-bejeweled woods.

"We're going to the Flat Top," said Brackenfall. The Flat Top was a miniature mesa that rose out of the ground near the border between LeafClan and DryClan. It had a few sparse trees on their side, and sloped into desert on DryClan's side. It made the perfect place to train, but it was also being constantly fought over.

They reached the plateau and made their way to the top. "Race you there!" called her mentor, shooting ahead.

"No fair!" Amberpaw hurtled after him. Though his strides were faster, she could run like lightening, and as they neared the top she overtook Brackenfall. Scrambling the last few tail-lengths, she pranced about, crowing, "Coudling catch up? Am I too much for your old bones? I can slow it down if you like."

Spitting dust out of his mouth, Brackenfall began, "Okay Amb-"

"Ha! You actually ate my dust." She wasn't finished yet.

Pretending to be angry, he darted forward. "You're going to regret that missy." He chased her around the Flat Top for a while, then they settled down to the business of training.

"We're going to try an advanced move today," Brackenfall said. "Normally only apprentices at least Bearpaw, Honeypaw, and Thistlepaw's age get to learn this, but I think you can handle it."

"Bring it on." Amberpaw dropped to a crouch, the picture of steely focus.

"Okay," he said. "This is called the tuck and roll. It sounds like a coward's move, but it's actually extremely helpful in attacks. First, you wait till a cat is lunging at you. Then you leap high into the air. This makes it look like you will attack from above. But instead, you curl yourself into a ball and somersault out of the way. If you master that part, you can try uncurling and lashing out with your paws to trip your oppenent."

"Let me try!" Amberpaw exclaimed.

"Not yet. Let me demonstrate. It's not as easy as it sounds. Okay, come at me." Amberpaw rushed towards Brackenfall. Since she knew he would escape, she longed to try a trick or two, but this was only an example. Subduing her fighting instincts, she made a clean dash for his shoulder.

Her mentor leaped up, but she could see his muscles were taut instead of extended. _Who would fall for this? _She had to remind herself that there was no opportunity to closely observe your opponent in a real battle. Curling up into himself, the tom landed in a somersault, uncurled his legs, and lashed out.

Amberpaw couldn't resist; she leaped up and landed hard on his legs, pinning her mentor to the ground.

Laughing, Brackenfall pushed her off. "Okay, I can see there's no fooling you. Why don't you try it now?"

"Sure," she said. Hardly able to wait till the golden-brown tom rushed her, she jumped perfectly. Instead of going higher though, she coiled up, tucking her legs so that they were bunched just so that she could somersault, and extend her legs easily enough.

The landing took her breath away; she hadn't anticipated the ground rushing up so hard or fast. Gritting her teeth, she let her back absorb the blow and flipped swiftly, using the momentum of her jump. Brackenfall was still standing within striking-range, so she shot out a curved front leg and hooked it around his back leg, pulling the tendon. He collapsed with a yowl of surprise.

"Impressive Amberpaw. I wouldn't want to be against you in a fight. I can hardly stand my ground in a training session."

"Don't say that, because you taught me everything I know." Amberpaw had a healthy self-confidence level, but she wasn't given in to flattery.

"We had better get back to the camp," Brackenfall said. "I want to get a rest before the evening patrol."

"Sure," she agreed good-naturedly, following her mentor. The crisp, cool leaf-green breeze brought with it the whisper of prey in the undergrowth and the sweet perfume of newly budding flowers. With a contented sigh, Amberpaw gazed about her home with large eyes, drinking in the day.

Brackenfall's voice brought her back to earth. "See that vole over there? Let's see if you can catch it?"

Amberpaw spotted the creature nibbling around the roots of a young sapling. She dropped into the hunter's crouch and moved forward silently, not letting her tail brush the ground. For a split second, the vole raised it's head, it's tiny nose twitching as it tested the air. Then Amberpaw thrust off with her hind legs and landed squarely on top of her prey, dispatching it with a swift blow to the neck.

"Good job," Brackenfall said. Seeing her lick her chops, he added, "This will make a nice snack for Morningheart and her kits."

Amberpaw ducked her head, ashamed. "Of course." She picked up the prey, ignoring its delicious scent.

Brackenfall smiled. "You can pick something from the fresh-kill pile though. We've been training hard."

She brightened a little. "Sure." Bounding ahead, she scampered down the log bridge into the sheltered gully. Fernpaw looked up as she entered; she had just emerged from the medicine cat's den.

"Hi, Amberpaw! Want to share a piece of fresh-kill?"

"Yes, let me just drop this off at the nursery." Amberpaw headed for the most sheltered badger cave, half-blocked by a large moss-covered boulder. From inside came the faint sound of mewling kits.

She entered, breathing in the warm, milky scent. Morningheart and Shyspirit were stranded in the middle of Morningheart's Herd, the nickname given to Pebblekit, Bluekit, Sweetkit, and Thornkit by any cat that had experienced their tantrums.

"Momma! Shyspirit! I wanna go outside!"

"Now!"

"Why can't we go outside?"

"We're mighty warriors!"

Morningheart's gray eyes registered relief as Amberpaw entered. She took the vole. "Thank you so much. I haven't been able to leave for fear that the kits will get into a scrape."

Shyspirit laughed lightly. She was a small, aptly named silver she-cat. Quiet though she might be, her round, expressive brown eyes and sweet pointed face had captured the heart of the Clan's deputy, Strikefoot. Now her flanks were plump with kits, and she seemed to already have a lot of practice dealing with the Morningheart's four terrors.

"They haven't been that bad." Morningheart rolled her eyes.

"When you have your kits, you enjoy their reign of terror. For now, I shall gripe and complain all I want."

Amberpaw smiled. "Be good okay?" she said to the four kits.

The three she-kits nodded, but Thornkit screwed up his face. "Nope, don't wanna."

Amberpaw kept a straight face till she left. Then she collapsed helplessly on the ground and rolled around laughing, kicking her paws in the air.

"What's so funny?" Amberpaw found herself looking into the faces of Thistlepaw and Bearpaw. Both toms looked amused.

"Nothing," she snapped, climbing to her paws and giving her fur a shake.

Thistlepaw grinned, his yellow eyes vibrant against his dark gray coat. "Want to help us dump Honeypaw in the river?"

Amberpaw blinked at them. "No."

"Fine, goody two-paws," snickered Bearpaw. "Just don't tattle, okay?"

"I am not- Hey, come back here!" The two tom raced out of the camp, leaving her fuming. Shaking her head, Amberpaw headed for her den. _Toms._


End file.
